It’s pushing two years now, two months shy, and the Devils have yet to figure out how to best use Ilya Kovalchuk, how to fit his superb talent into the team scheme that is the heart of their philosophy and past success.

The Devils are off on another road trip — four games beginning tonight against the Avalanche in Denver. This is a team that needs a decision, a Strategy 17, far more than the personality-bonding of communal travel. Wins and losses on this trip would matter less than finding a suitable solution to the Kovalchuk question. Now there’s a deadline, Zach Parise’s looming free agency and the decision whether to trade him as a rental by Feb. 27.

Whether the decision works or not, coach Pete DeBoer deserves credit for guts in following John MacLean’s idea of putting the $100 million man at right wing. But the left side is where Kovalchuk has trained, where he scored 52 twice and where he best belongs.

One silly observer noted that Kovalchuk’s other great skill, besides the big shot, is his high-speed shifty stickhandling, a skill that harkens Mario Lemieux, Wayne Gretzky, in short, the great centers. Why wasn’t Kovalchuk trained in the middle?

“Ask my first coach,” Kovalchuk responded, uninterested.

The issue would be whether he would pass before he must, as the greats do, or whether he would pass only when he ran out of other options. Ah, but his die was cast 15 years ago.

From the outside, Kovalchuk represents the stereotype of a mercenary. That view is wrong. Those who coached or managed him in Atlanta, even those who met him expecting the worst, sing his personal praises, his utter desire to win, and his belief in team, surprised themselves.

“It’s just that he usually thinks he’s the best option,” one of those ex-Thrasher brass says.

All-time one-timer, rocket wrister, uncatchable speed and mesmerizing stickhandling, that conviction usually would be correct, except when the whole league is waiting for it.

Parise, at least Kovalchuk’s equal, has been reduced to an end-boards digger, a goal-mouth rebounder, reinforcing the concern that there are not enough pucks on the ice for both of them, but it should be settled before Travis Zajac returns in the coming month.

The Devils need Kovalchuk to pass, and he was doing it Saturday. Give more, get more, just like Christmas. After setting up both the Devils scores in their 3-2 loss to the Islanders Saturday, he worked a perfect, tight, give-and-go straight out of Jacques Lemaire’s short game. He was a half-second from tying the game when he was hooked off the sharp play that is just what he and the Devils need on a consistent basis.

If he makes a practice of such passes on this trip, then the Devils will have gained more than they would by sweeping four.

* The Devils waived Brad Mills yesterday. … Adam Larsson has tied the team record point streak for rookie defensemen of five games, shared by Scott Niedermayer and Bruce Driver, according to Elias Sports Bureau. … The Devils visit Minnesota Friday, Winnipeg Saturday and Toronto Tuesday. They return to play host to Ottawa Dec. 8. … The Devils are 8-4 in 12, and 4-2 in last six on the road.